Time For Payback

July 20, 2013

Club gave up one-goal lead in 3-2 loss at BYU on July 4.

By H. Jose Bosch

Tucson, AZ (July 19, 2013) — All the matches, the training sessions and the miles traveled come to an end tonight. FC Tucson takes the field for the final time in 2013 and it will be the final time the club plays a league match at Field 5.

But nostalgia aside, there is still business to be taken care of and FC Tucson has a score to settle with the BYU Cougars.

“I think we all have payback on our minds coming into this game,” said FC Tucson defender Tim Harbison. “It was disappointing how that game ended. … I think we’re all really anxious to play this game and get some payback. Definitely.”

In that July 4th match, FC Tucson held a 2-1 lead with 20 minutes remaining in the match. The club then gave up two goals to fall 3-2. The match was a microcosm of the type of season FC Tucson had. A team loaded with talent, who could seemingly score at will, dropping points because of mistakes at key moments of a game. Adding insult to injury, the loss eliminated FC Tucson from the playoffs.

But if that loss represented the type of season FC Tucson had, tonight could be a chance to show fans the type of season that could have been. Since the loss FC Tucson has won three consecutive matches and even though just one of those matches was against a league opponent (a 4-0 win over the Los Angeles Misioneros on July 13) the club is playing some of its best soccer of the year.

“People didn’t quit when we knew it was mathematically impossible (to make the playoffs),” Harbison said. “I feel like that’s when we’ve had our best performances and that says a lot for the kind of players we have. We’re not quitting. To finish like that says a lot.”